New Legacy W&LE Heavy Mikado Strange Running Quirk - Update! Problems Continue!

Check the train brake slider.  Make sure there aren't any other Cab remotes in the area.  Reprogram the TMCC ID to reset the locomotive.

The brake slider was not on.  That was the first thing I checked.  There was another Cab-2 in the room at the time, but there was no engine in that remote with the ID number that this engine was assigned.  I have not reprogrammed the ID up to this point.  I will change it and test again.

Thanks!

Hmm. Maybe its losing the Legacy / TMCC signal.  Does this occur in the same spot of the layout? Some engines are real touchy ...

Was Slie in the room? 

J Daddy,

I thought the same thing, but it happened at random locations.  It never did it twice in the same spot or two spots close to each other.

Marty,

Yeah, he was. 

mountain482 posted:

 

Marty,

Yeah, he was. 

Remove him and try again.

Hey I resemble that remark ... ��

Well, the mystery has been solved.  The engine finally stopped for the last time in Legacy mode tonight.  It no longer responds to Legacy commands (though it occasionally will see the Legacy signal and just sit silently) but will run conventionally.  It appears the Legacy receiver inside has failed.  It will go back to my dealer to be sent back to Lionel for repair since it's still under warranty.

Thanks for the assistance!

Bill,

Sorry about your engine. However, thank you for sharing your experience. I always thought when the receiver went... it just would go out completely. 

J Daddy posted:

Bill,

I always thought when the receiver went... it just would go out completely. 

Happiness is a solid failure, but they're not always that cooperative.

Thanks, J Daddy.  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  I was having a good luck streak that went too long!  I wasn't sure how the newer Legacy engines react when a receiver fails.  I've never had one happen up to this point in time.

I remember my first K line receiver failure. To this day I cannot get that nasty burnt board smell out of my head. 

Oddly enough, there was no burned smell this time.  I have smelled that before though and I know what it is immediately when I come across it.  It's not pleasant.

I have a legacy mike to and it has the cheap small macbuchi motor and I have been pulling a heavy freight 20 cars with it.  After running about 30 minutes it slows down and stops.  The motor gets so h ot from the load and stalls out.  I let it cool or wait for the next running session and it is fine, just do not run it too long.  Those can motors were used in the Williams brass engines but had 40 to one gearing and were allowed to run at high rpm and did not get that hot.  The big boy and challenger had 48 to on gearing and did well at higher rpm pulling heavy loads.  When 3rd rail took over the penn full scale brass engine from Williams which was geared about 18 to one and moter did not do well so mort mann had pittmans put in and those torquey motors did very well with that gear ratio.

Thanks for the information.  While that might explain the one issue where it stops on it's own (not knowing if your heavy train equated to the 20 cars I ran it with weight-wise), it doesn't explain what happened when it quit responding to Legacy like it did.  I'll report back when I get it back if they even tell my dealer what went wrong.

Just a quick update.  The engine went to Lionel through my dealer and was fixed under Warranty repair.  It came back this week.  They replaced the motherboard (a.k.a the RCMC) which ended up having an internal short of some kind.  I ran it for the first time tonight as I picked it up earlier this afternoon.  Not quite one hour into the run session, I heard a couple of popping/cracking sounds and the train (engine plus about 15 cars) jerked to an immediate stop with all lights out and smoke started rolling out from underneath the boiler.  The smoke smelled of burnt electronics.  I hit halt immediately when it stopped to kill the power, but it was too late.  I'm guessing the motherboard they put in it failed in some way that let all the magic smoke out of it.  As GunRunnerJohn put it above, I got the solid failure this time.  I'll take it back to the dealer to go back to Lionel again for a second Warranty repair.

Howdy Bill,

I had a similar situation with a MTH Proto 3 Genesis Amtrak engine. The dealer where it was purchased fired her up for me on his test track.  I brought her home and put her on my layout and she didn't even make it all the way around before she quit, (Complete Fail) no lights, no sound, no nuthin'.  Back to MTH and returned in about 3 weeks. Fired her up and guess what?  Back to MTH.  I'm not complaining because MTH made it good under warranty but in the 2 months I owned that engine it spent almost 6 weeks back and forth to MTH.  Again, let me stress that I am NOT complaining.  This stuff just happens.  I have a friend who is in retail electronic sales and he told me that there is an expected failure rate of about 5% in modern consumer electronic items.  Doesn't sound like much but when you put that in perspective it is a considerable amount.  Just sayin'

Chief Bob (Retired)

Hi Bob,

I agree.  It does happen.  I'm not complaining either as I work with computers for a living and I know how finicky electronics can be sometimes.  I'm not surprised when something like this happens.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, it was bound to happen sooner or later to me.  I've had too much good luck with trains working correctly.  The last major failure I had within a few hours out of the box was an MTH Premier N&W J from the 2008 run.  It was returned to MTH for repair and has been fine since the return.  I'll just have to run one of the many other engines I have until I get it back.